By: Ebrima Sonko
When the Bolivian Football Federation opened accreditation for an international friendly against The Gambia’s Scorpions, scheduled for 4 October at the Estadio Ramón Tahuichi Aguilera, Banjul responded with silence. The Gambia Football Federation had published nothing on its platforms. Bolivia had already named the Scorpions as the third opponent of its October window. The GFF had not.
With the correspondence now in hand, the collapse can be reconstructed day by day. It is a story of a signed mandate and an accepted invitation, a 1,900-kilometer detour through Buenos Aires, one-way tickets that ended in Accra, and two federations offering the public irreconcilable accounts of why the match died.
It began with an agent. On 17 September 2026, GFF General Secretary Lamin M. Jassey signed a Mandate Letter authorizing SIBM LTDA and Dzaire Soccer Agency, license 220609, to negotiate a Tier 1 friendly against Bolivia in the October window. The letter was explicit on one point: the agent had “no power of final signature.”
Four days later the invitation arrived. In letter FBF/1056/2026, dated 21 September, FBF Executive Director Dr. Gaston Uribe Aleman wrote to Jassey and copied two FIFA-licensed intermediaries, Joel Sanchez (Lic. FIFA202408-8192) and Bertrand Ndog. Bolivia, as host, undertook to cover return flights, accommodation, local transport, the stadium, training facilities, meals, administrative costs and agent commission for a 35-man delegation. On their face, the terms were generous.
On 22 September, Jassey replied that the GFF formally accepted the invitation and agreed to all logistical terms. On paper, the fixture was settled. The Scorpions were due to face Ghana on 29 September in an Africa Cup of Nations 2027 qualifier, then travel to South America for a high-profile test.
Bolivia treated the acceptance as operative. On 24 September, Dr. Uribe signed the FIFA application form for hosting a Tier 1 international match: Bolivia versus Gambia, 4 October 2026, Estadio Ramón Aguilera Costas. On 29 September, CONMEBOL answered. Letter ACS 157/2026, signed by Andre Mattos, Director de Competiciones y Operaciones, recorded approval for a senior men’s Level 1 match on 4 October 2026, in Bolivia. The same day CONMEBOL’s referee chief, Enrique Caceres, appointed the officials: Paraguayan Derlis Lopez as referee, with compatriots Eduardo Britos and Jose Cuevas as assistants. The FBF would pay their flights, hotels and fees.
From La Paz, the match was official. Tickets were sold. Media accreditation was opened. The Bolivian file is therefore thicker than the GFF’s later public claim that both federations never signed the required Tier 1 forms and that FIFA never granted mandatory approval.
CONMEBOL’s written approval and the designated officials sit in the correspondence. What FIFA itself stamped, or did not stamp, in Zurich is a separate question the documents in hand do not fully answer.
The tickets are where the agreement broke. Flight manifests in the file show the FBF booked the Gambian delegation on BoA flight OB 739 from São Paulo (GRU) to Santa Cruz (VVI) on 2 October, with the return listed as OB 708 from Santa Cruz to Buenos Aires (EZE) on 5 October. A separate Ethiopian Airlines booking then routed six players Buenos Aires–São Paulo–Addis Ababa–Accra on 5–7 October, flights ET 507 and ET 927.
The GFF’s 5 October press release, issued under President Kemo Ceesay, reduced the dispute to three points. First, inappropriate routing: a booking that placed the party in Buenos Aires, nearly 1,900 kilometers from Santa Cruz, with no onward arrangement shown to the match city. Second, incomplete return travel: tickets ending in Accra, leaving European-based players without a booked path back to their clubs and, in the federation’s words, “directly threatening compliance with FIFA regulations on player return timelines.” Third, incomplete FIFA compliance: the claim that Tier 1 forms were never signed and that FIFA never approved the match.
The GFF says it notified the agent of withdrawal on Monday 28 September. The response it describes, received on 1 October, was a set of one-way air tickets to Accra that it judged logistically impossible to use. “As a federation, our primary duty of care is to the welfare, health, and psychological well-being of our National Team players,” the statement said. The uncertainty and logistical disorder, it argued, had become an unacceptable distraction from the competitive fixture against Ghana.
Bolivia’s statement of 1 October tells the opposite story. The friendly, La Paz wrote, “has been canceled as a consequence of a unilateral decision by the Gambia Football Federation (GFF), despite the existence of a signed contract for the staging of the match.” Citing a breach of contract, the FBF said it would pursue the competent sports authorities for the most severe economic and sporting sanctions available. It apologized to fans and promised a refund procedure.
The documents do not support a simple narrative in which one side invented the facts. They show that the FBF secured CONMEBOL approval and match officials, which undercuts the GFF’s assertion that the fixture never received the necessary continental clearance. They also show that the GFF’s core logistical complaint was real: players were routed toward Buenos Aires, roughly 1,250 miles from the venue, and the return itinerary in the file ended in Accra rather than at European club bases.
For a squad already scheduled for two demanding competitive matches, against Somalia and Ghana, and with players privately raising concerns about the physical toll, the routing became the decisive objection. A fixture intended to prepare the Scorpions for a wider stage was abandoned because the journey to that stage could not be made to work.
In Santa Cruz, the file is closed. In Zurich, where the FBF has said it will seek sanctions, it may only be opening. The author has all letters, FIFA forms, CONMEBOL approvals, and flight manifests referenced here.
